Index Archive

06 February 2017

Supreme Court attaches Aamby Valley property of Sahara Group
The Supreme Court on Monday attached Sahara group`s Aamby Valley property in Pune for the recovery of Rs 14,799 crore that the group`s two companies involved in real estate have to pay investors.

Honorable Supreme Court bench also directed Sahara to submit by February 20, 2017 a list of its properties that are unencumbered and free from any litigation or mortgage so that these could be put to public auction for the realization of the balance of the principal amount.

The Aamby Valley property value is Rs. 39,000 crore.

The order came from a bench headed by justice Dipak Misra that noted Sahara’s proposed payment plan extending till July 2019 was too long and said the court would auction the properties to recover the amount.

Sahara has so far paid a little over Rs 11,000 crore. In a proposal before the top court, it wanted time till July 2019 to deposit a balance of Rs 14,779 crore with SEBI.

Sahara in the meanwhile deposited Rs 600 crore as directed by the Centre by its November 28, 2016, order for continued parole of Subrata Roy and others.

SEBI had alleged that Roy failed to comply with the 2012 Supreme Court order directing him to return investors more than Rs 20,000 crore with 15 percent interest that his two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp Ltd had raised through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2007 and 2008.

The Rs 14,000 crore is the balance of the principal amount that Sahara's two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd. (SHICL) have to pay to the market regulator.

Sahara has already paid about Rs 11,000 crore of the principal amount to market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for returning to over three crore investors.

Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd were asked on August 31, 2012, to return to the investors more than Rs. 14,000 crore with 15 per cent interest that the two companies raised through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures in 2008 and 2009.

Subrata Roy, his son-in-law Ashok Roy Choudhary and group's Director Ravi Shankar Dubey, who are now on parole, were sent in judicial custody to Tihar Jail on March 4, 2014, for the failure of the two companies to comply with the court's August 31, 2012, order.

Roy was granted parole on May 6, 2016, to perform the last rites of his mother who passed away on May 5. Besides Roy, Choudhary too was released on parole. Dubey was released on parole later.